At our California location we’ll be going on a field trip to American Apparel, one of the largest and most innovative clothing companies in the United States.

Where Are We Going?
American Apparel is a vertically integrated garment company that’s known for hip clothes, racy ads, and viral growth. Since it opened its first store in 2003, they’ve opened 260 stores in 19 countries.

What Will We Learn?
While we visit the main factory in downtown Los Angeles (the largest garment factory in the United States, according to the New York Times), we’ll talk to managers about what it means to be publicly held and what it takes to run an operation that employs over 5,000 people. We’ll also explore American Apparel’s decision to pay all of its employees a living wage and talk about how companies can have a conscious.

Want to know more?
American Apparel has a five-minute introductory video that’s worth watching. If you want to know more about the company as an investment, look at the Google Finance page. If you just can’t wait for Camp and want to know more about vertical integration, the Wikpedia entry is pretty good.

Tags: american apparel, camp start-up, CSU, field trip, scripps college
Categories: Camp $tart-Up, Camps, Events and Retreats

This entry was posted on Friday, April 9th, 2010 at 1:31 pm and is filed under Camp $tart-Up, Camps, Events and Retreats. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.